Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The proposition that alcoholism is a disease has not always been with us..." (more)
Key Phrases: classic disease concept, chronic heavy drinkers, gamma alcoholism, Alcoholics Anonymous, Emerging Concepts of Alcohol Dependence, Relapse Prevention (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fingarette aims to refute evidence that alcoholism is a disease. Rejecting the terms alcoholic and disease, he points out that many "heavy drinkers" do not experience craving and/or loss of control, can engage in controlled drinking, and have spontaneous recovery. He also notes the variable success rates of medical treatment programs. Ultimately, Fingarette states that heavy drinking is dependent upon a host of situational factors. The heavy drinker is not "a passive patient who will be treated by an expert . . ." but an individual capable of exercising control and assuming responsibility. The weakness here is that alcoholism and heavy drinking are in fact different entities; in discussing alcoholism there is room for both a disease and a situational model. Barbara J. Powell, Veterans Administration Medical Ctr., Kansas City, Mo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post

"[Fingarette] writes with the words and touch of a kind and gentle man. . . . This is a solid book, and one that is sure to create controversy, and if you want to hate it, agree with it or disagree with it, you ought to read it first." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (June 21, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520067541
• ISBN-13: 978-0520067547
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #454,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Classic Remains a Classic, October 31, 2003

By	Richard K. - Author (Haverhill, MA) - See all my reviews

In the fourteen years since the debut of this remarkable work, Professor Fingarette's book continues to be vilified by the current Alcoholism-as-Disease paradigm as a sham, harmful to its readers, and that it should be banned from all major book stores. It is simply amazing how this book struck the paradigm at its core, and how they haven't gotten over the hangover.

This book is truth at its simplistic best. It is cumbersome to admit one's own culpability, and even harder for an alcoholic to admit that he is his own worst enemy. I know. I was one. After years of living in fear of the next drink, which surely would lead me to a single, inexorable destructive conclusion, works like Dr. Fingarette's "Heavy Drinking" had shown me that I was creating my own self-fulfilling prophecy, and that I indeed had the power to change, not just one day at a time, but forever.

Of course, this idea flies in the face of those who promote the disease concept of alcoholism. Naturally, the multi-billion dollar institution will not tell you that they have done nothing to help the addiction situation since the AMA self-servingly declared alcoholism to be an illness in 1956. They continue to tell the public that the alcohol problem continues to skyrocket.

The harshest attack on Dr. Fingarette's book is his assertion that alcoholics can learn to control their drinking. It has been proven time and again by several major studies since the 1960s. And yet, the disease camp, founded by the old unfounded addage "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic" spends countless millions in government-funded dollars promoting the idea that this is impossible. They have to. If they admitted that it was possible, their very essence would be threatened, and the industry would collapse.

Bravo to Dr. Fingarette for having the guts to stand firm in the face of such pressure and present the truth. It is only by the presence of more secure individuals like the good doctor when a real answer can be offered to those who abuse alcohol and drugs. The keys to success are motivation, values, morality (yes, what's wrong with living a morally decent life?), and maturity. Life is worth living, and the same joy that was once found in a bottle can be found inside the joys of parenthood, work, and success.

37 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alcoholism is a Serious Problem, But It's Not a Disease, June 22, 2001

By	Lawrence U. Fike, Jr. (Yakima, WA USA - Philosophy Instructor) - See all my reviews

In 7 chapters, Herbert Fingarette, formerly a professor of philosophy at UC Santa Barbara, dispels the myth that alcoholism is a disease, while taking very seriously the social problem of alcoholic behavior.

In 1960 E. M. Jellinek published a book titled THE DISEASE CONCEPT OF ALCOHOLISM (p. 20). Alcoholics Anonymous members adopted this book as their scientific basis for asserting that alcoholism is a disease. But Jellinek's data was compiled by interviewing A.A. members. Thus, his conclusions were based on the reasoning of the very people who came to endorse his book. Furthermore, his research was based on only 98 interviews.

Today, the politics of alcoholism is big business (pp. 22 ff.). Conceiving of it as a disease enables treatment centers to receive payments from health insurance companies.

If somebody has cancer, you don't say, "You foolish person! You have cancer!" But when it comes to alcoholism, it is not unusual to find the relapsing drinker to be accused of having done something wrong. Many think the alcoholic, unlike the "canceric," has control. This, Fingarette argues, is in an important sense true, and shows the disanalogy between the disease of cancer and the PROBLEM of alcoholism. (Have you ever noticed that "alcoholic" is the dominant "-ic" in the U.S.? If you examine the word "alcohol," what is added to it is only "-ic." But when a person has a fancy for, say, chocolate, we don't say, "chocolatic," but rather "chocoholic." "Holic" always makes its way in, so obsessed are we as a society with alcohol.)

Heavy drinkers -- as Fingarette refers to what others call "alcoholics" -- do not become heavy drinkers for just one reason. Therefore, it is unclear that treatment should consist of just one variety. Twelve-step programs, in our society, play a role like that of various forms of fundamentalism both here and abroad, reducing problems to a formulaic response that is often insulting at best, and deadly at worst. The person is by-passed because the program directors "know" what the right thing is for the "patient" to do.

Controlled drinking programs are available in many countries (p. 128). In Europe, attitudes toward drinking are remarkably different from attitudes in the U.S., and these differences often make a difference in the way people actually drink. Stigmatizing behavior often reinforces the very negative behavior it seeks to prevent, especially in a country like the U.S. where rebellion is schizophrenically considered a virtue.

Fingarette discusses the GENETIC HYPOTHESIS on pp. 51-55. This is very important: IT HAS NOT BEEN PROVED. I have spoken with several substance abuse counselors who very nonchalantly remark, as though possessing conclusive scientific authority to do so, "It's genetic." We don't know that. We don't know that 12 steps to recovery is the gospel. Agents of recovery should consider adopting a more epistemically modest stance. But although this book would help them make a move in that direction, they can't afford to. Literally.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paradigm breaking., June 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease (Hardcover)

Simply, the best book I've read on "alcoholism." After you've read the book, you'll see why I've used the quotes. Brief, but crisply written, intellectual, cogent, and penetrating, it's one of those few books that changed my way of looking at things.